After Sean's announcement to Harry, Sean said for him to go and get some rest, "There are a lot of people in there who care about you Potter," Sean added, "it would be good of you to let them give you their best for the next few days that you will be here."
Harry simply nodded and then returned to the house where he found that everyone had retired for the evening, he noticed what time it was, "3 AM," he thought to himself, "when did I come to this?"
Harry sat on a couch in the living room and thought of everything that had just happened. He wondered to himself why all of this was happening to him, why he couldn't just have had a normal life, or at least one of joy and happiness like his friend Ron with his good family and stable life. He thought of Cho Chang and Ginny and why he couldn't have had a good relationship in his life, he had to be either "the chosen one" or "the boy who lived", he couldn't just be Harry Potter…and he would never be able to shake that off.
He realized that he wasn't going to be getting to sleep anytime soon. He didn't really want to stay in the dark at this time either. He gathered some wood into the fireplace and hoped that the Weasleys wouldn't mind him making a small fire, "Inflamare" he said pointing his wand. He enjoyed the small crackle of the flames in front of him, "I'll just sleep here on the couch tonight" he thought to himself. "That way no one will be disturbed."
Harry had a lot of time to think, and he wondered how his life had come to this and what lay in store with his new Muggle guardian. "Harry?" He heard a familiar female voice say lightly to him in the dark, and he saw the form of Hermione Granger approaching him. "What are you doing still awake?" she asked.
"I could ask you the same thing." Harry stated.
"I can't sleep," Hermione retorted, "what's your excuse?"
"I have a lot on my mind right now," Harry said.
"I can imagine," Hermione said as she settled next to him on the couch, "it might help if you shared some of what is bothering you" she added with what Harry could almost say was a loving tone.
Knowing that this could very well be the last time that he would see Hermione, Harry took in everything about her. Her features had matured greatly in the past two years, she was now a young woman, and she looked it. She had taken to brushing her hair, trading in the former bushy look for one of straight and flowing brown hair that Harry thought looked very beautiful and was fitting for a young woman like Hermione. She had grown to a height of five feet five inches, almost identical to her best girl friend Ginny Weasley. She had also been exercising and sported a toned core with firm arms and legs. She was still as studious as ever, but since he had arrived at the Burrow, Harry had noticed that she seemed to carry some kind of emotional weight. He decided to tell Hermione what was on his mind. "After all" he thought to himself, "when has she been wrong about anything?"
"I don't know how much I am allowed to say, but it seems that I don't need to go looking for the Horcruxes" Harry said. Harry was surprised when Hermione didn't ask him why, but he elected to continue. "It seems like that man with Bill,"
"You mean Sean?" Hermione interjected.
"How did you know his name?" Harry asked.
"He arrived here with Bill four days ago and Bill introduced him to Ron, and the rest of us."
"Oh," Harry said, "well, it seems he already went through the trouble of finding them." Harry paused trying to evaluate any reaction coming from Hermione to this information, but he only saw a look of concern and…was that caring or even love he saw in her eyes as she gazed at him?
"So when are you leaving with him?" Hermione asked.
"How did…" Harry began before Hermione cut him off.
"Lupin let me listen to Bill explaining his plan for you, he thought that I could help the Order on this one…and I really want to."
"I'm sure that you will do a lot of good" Harry said, "you always have."
He could hear Hermione start to stifle a sob; he looked over to see her holding back tears. He reached over and found that his hand was resting on top of hers, but they didn't pull them away and then think that some awkward moment had passed…they just stayed there. "Please don't cry Hermione," Harry began "I only have a few days here, and I would like to see you happy for that time."
"When are you leaving?" Hermione asked.
"Sean told me that we will be leaving the day after the wedding" Harry responded simply.
"I don't want you to go," Hermione began almost screaming with anger and frustration as she threw her arms around Harry. "It isn't fair that you can't have a life, they call you the boy who lived, so why can't you be free to live and…" there was a pause and Hermione's voice became calmer as she lightly pushed away from him "…love."
She ended her thought, Harry looked at her with his emerald green eyes and tried to say in a very comforting tone "I need to do this Hermione, if Sean can do what he says he can, then I can finally destroy Voldemort and then be free to truly be the boy who lived…and you, Ron, Ginny, Neville, Hagrid, Lupin, Tonks, Luna, and all the other people I care about can finally be safe and not have to worry about threats from the Dark Lord…and we can all be free."
"I understand Harry" Hermione said, "how long will you be gone for?" she asked.
"As long as it takes," Harry answered honestly, "this is something that I am going to see through to the end." Hermione was surprised by the tone of determination and resolution that Harry had in his voice.
"It's not fair that you had to grow up so fast," Hermione said "here you are almost seventeen years old and you're acting like a full-grown man with real adult problems."
"I can't really help that," Harry said, "but I can see this through and finish it."
Harry stopped and Hermione just sat next to him for a few moments. Harry finally realized that Hermione had moved in closer next to him and had woven her fingers through his on their hands that had been touching. Harry tensed a bit at first with this new sensation and feeling, he had been with girls before, he had even kissed a couple of girls, but this was the first time he was ever in any kind of situation like this with Hermione. She was his friend, he kept telling himself, and she couldn't be anything more…it was too dangerous.
All the while he was conflicting inside he couldn't help but notice how much her features had matured and how beautiful she had become. She looked like something that he would only read about in fairy tales or other stories of mythological beauties, the kind of creatures that would drive men mad with how utterly gorgeous they were. "Harry?" she asked with a questioning tone.
"Yeah?" he replied.
"Why are you staring at me?" Harry finally realized that he had indeed been staring at the young witch with the lovely brown hair and cinnamon eyes sitting to his right.
Harry didn't know what to do or say, "Um, well, I uh…" he stammered out as he tried to think of exactly why he had been staring at her. He had thought of how ever since she kissed him on the cheek at the end of their fourth year of Hogwarts he had thought of her and what she meant to him. He thought of how at the end of fifth year when he had seen her paralyzed that he didn't want to go on living if she died. He thought of how lately while he was alone in his house at Grimmauld Place he had often imagined what it would be like having her in his life as more than friends.
But, for the life of him he could not put it into words, and the fact that Hermione was now staring at him with what was at first a look of waiting for him to respond to her inquiry as to why he was staring at her, but had since evolved into one of glowering admiration was not helping his thought process. Harry's heart began pounding in his chest so hard that he was certain that it would burst out of his chest at any moment. He wanted to tell her all that he was feeling, but he was afraid of messing up whatever he had with her now, but he also realized that there was no going back now, he was going to start being the boy who lived…right now.
"Hermione…" Harry started, and continued as he saw her turn her gaze to meet his own. "I have a confession to make, something that started more than two and a half years ago." Harry paused not knowing how to go on, but Hermione was more than willing to coax him along.
"Yes…" Hermione said encouragingly, "Go on."
"Hermione…" Harry started, but rather than make his own confession, there was something he needed to know, "at the end of fourth year, before I went back to the Dursleys, why did you kiss me on the cheek?"
Now it was Hermione's turn to be cornered and not know how to respond. This was a very difficult situation for Hermione to be in, she was such a smart young woman, everything had a clear answer and she always knew it…it was her nature. But she found that she could not think of an answer to Harry's simple question, she knew why she had done it, but wording it into a proper response was going to be difficult.
"Well," she began "after you disappeared from the maze with Cederic, I started to fear the worst and I found that…" she paused and this time it was Harry's turn to coax her along, and he muttered the same "yes…go on" that she had done earlier.
Hermione took a breath and then continued, "I was afraid that I would never see you again and I got to thinking about how much I lo…" Hermione paused, worried about how Harry would take it if she confessed her feelings to him now, and she quickly corrected herself, "care about you and how wonderful my life is with you in it. How you're always there with me not because I can help you with your work but because I'm just me and that's all I need to be with you."
Comprehension dawned on Harry the moment he heard Hermione say "lo…" "She loves me," he thought to himself. "You still haven't answered my question," Hermione pouted, "why were you staring at me?" Harry, now filled with a renewed resolve but realizing that he could not put his feelings into words, paused and then lightly cupped Hermione's chin with his index finger while placing the palm of his other hand lightly on her cheek. "Because…" Harry said "I can't help myself."They looked into each other's eyes, Hermione smiled and bit her lower lip, and then Harry leaned in. Hermione realized what Harry was about to do. She turned her whole body to her left towards Harry. She placed her left leg onto the couch to allow Harry quicker and unrestricted access. As Harry leaned in closer she wrapped her arms around his neck and brought her right leg up to wrap around him and bring him to her.
Harry wrapped his arms around Hermione's waist as their lips met, lightly at first, and then deepened into a loving kiss. Neither of them tensed, they had both wanted this for a long time, Harry wrapped his arms around her tighter and Hermione wrapped her other leg around his waist. They came in closer to each other as all the pent up emotion that they had had for more than six years came out all at once. Hermione moaned in delight as Harry deepened the kiss even further, he realized that this is what he wanted, this was what was missing from his life…this was perfection.
They came away for air about thirty seconds later and looked into each other's eyes with their foreheads resting against each other. Both of them were breathing harder now and they couldn't help but look at each other. At first the stare was a little awkward as if they were wondering what just happened. But after a few seconds Hermione smiled and Harry started to crack a grin.
"I've wanted that for a long time now" Harry said to Hermione as she brushed some of his long hair away from his face.
"Me to" Hermione stated the best she could due to the fact that Harry had taken her breath away. She stared deeply into his emerald green eyes as she ran her fingers through his hair. Harry returned the look and a full-blown smile, the first he had shown in ages, became sprawled across his features.
"That was my first kiss" Hermione said matter-of-factly knowing that Harry had kissed two other girls before.
"But I thought you and Viktor…" Harry began.
Hermione lightly brought a finger to Harry's lips to silence him, "we were only friends" Hermione said removing her finger, "and besides" she continued, "I could only ever talk about you."
Harry wasn't sure how to respond, but after that honest compliment, he decided to respond with one of his own. "When I kissed Cho," Harry began "it wasn't how I thought it would be because in my head I was wishing that it was you there with me under the mistletoe."
They both stared at each other a little longer and then came together for another chaste yet passionate kiss, in front of the crackling fire, and for a brief time, everything in Harry's life seemed perfect. For the brief time that he was kissing Hermione, the girl he now knew was his one true love, he forgot about Voldemort, he forgot about Sean and going to the monastery, for the time being he was focused only on the beautiful girl snogging him between her legs.
They came apart, Hermione kept her eyes shut taking in all that had just transpired and let out a love struck breath before opening her eyes to look at Harry, her hero and one true love. "We should be getting to bed," Harry said, "It would look very strange if people came in to find the two of us sleeping on the couch."
"Yeah" Hermione agreed, "I'll see you in the morning, Sean said that I should teach you a few charms before you go."
"I look forward to it." Harry said. With that, they kissed good night and went to their respective rooms.
Hermione was sharing a room with Ginny and Fleur, Harry was sure that he was up in the attic like last Christmas with Ron. Harry found that he was right; he came in quietly and found a bed made for him up there. Harry let out a sigh as he made his way to where he would be sleeping.
Oddly enough, Harry found that he felt better than he ever had before. He was in love, and this time it was different, this time he knew it was for real. He settled into his bed, and for the first time in a very long time, settled into a wonderful, deep sleep, filled with wonderful dreams…dreams of Hermione Jane Granger.